Results: To date, 58 patients are enrolled, with mean age of 51.5 (range: 12–88) and 72% women. Among early notable findings, substantial improvements were observed in abatement of clinical depression. Of 48 individuals with subsequent PHQ-9s, their mean decline was 7.7 points; 50% exhibited remittance and 86% showed clinical improvement. Other analysis suggests a slight drop in emergency visits and fewer prescriptions across most psychotropic and medical drug classes, controlling for program duration. Patient satisfaction with the program is quite positive, especially perceived inclusion when discussing treatment strategies and provider attention to patient mood. Ongoing work will examine changes in specialty mental health care, admissions and costs in comparison to a similar clinic cohort, matching for demographics and clinical characteristics.

Conclusion: Consistent with national efforts to better engage patients in their health care decisions, this care management program employs highly qualified, lower-cost providers for most encounters. Such personalized, coordinated treatment of comorbid conditions within a primary care environment offers tremendous promise for improving depression and quality of life while proactively reducing unnecessary treatment and system costs. Further longitudinal analyses will monitor these impressive short-term benefits as we fully examine implementation of a truly patient-centered, feasible care approach.